The secret access to the connecting tunnel between Crystal Empire and Brauheim opens again.
“Get inside,” One frowns at Bubbles who has gradually recovered enough strength to limp at reasonable speed, “And tell the other two not to do anything stupid. You’re covered in blood.”
While One was able to have the top molecular level of her chitin simply flake off along with minotaur and Bubbles’ blood, the demonette didn’t get the chance to take a bath, and dragging herself through the snow just couldn’t compare.
Hissing as pain and burning feeling shoot through her chest, Bubbles climbs down the ladder. One climbs into the hole after a brief pause to give Bubbles some space as well as a chance to talk to Contradiction. From her point of view, Astray might have some special role in their team, but to her he simply isn’t a threat under any circumstances.
Taking a breath to steady herself, she jumps down the last few steps, and reinforces her chitin just in case.
Her world blurs as the force that a fully loaded freight train would be jealous of blasts her through the tunnel.
So much for staying calm and collected.
One knows she’s going to get only one proper shot before she’s going to have to either face her death or have to kill Contradiction. Speaking of the unicorn, she’s walking towards her, the glimmer around her horn twisting the air of the tunnel into eldritch shapes.
One pounces forward, not at blinding speed which would force the unicorn to punt her away again, but at a pace normal for a quadruped. As expected, she feels the grip of overpowering telekinesis on her whole body suspending her in the air.
“You...” Contradiction hisses, eyes narrowed and teeth bared.
“I’ll give you one last chance-” One speaks up before telekinesis clamps her mouth shut.
Oh well, I tried.
Ever since their last encounter, she’s been preparing a trick just for this eventuality. If One has to get defeated, she doesn’t like to remain defeated for long. Steadying herself, she knows she needs to do this accurately and quickly. With that in mind, she shrinks a little, makes her butt and thighs a lot squishier, and turns the upper layer of her chitin into extremely viscous and slippery goo. Contradiction’s mental grip tightens in response to her thinking One is trying to wiggle free, but all iher unnatural mental strength does is that it squeezes One forward at speed not even the changeling herself was expecting.
That means two- three things. One, Connie is vastly more powerful than One thought and was going easy on her last time. Two, she was ready to go all out on One this time, which makes what happens next a little easier. And three, all One has to do while flying by is flick the base of Connie’s horn with her hoof.
The force makes Contradiction do a backflip, and One hits something- someone soft.
“Oooooof!” the impact makes Astray trying to catch her fly off, but he doesn’t let go of One who, when their fall ends, quickly turns her head to see Contradiction lying and groaning on the floor.
The changeling crosses her forelegs on Astray’s chest, raising an eyebrow.
“So there is one of you with a brain after all.”
“You’re a lot… heavier than I… thought...” Astray pushes One off of him, rubs his torso to check for broken ribs, and quickly stumbles off to Connie.
“That’s no way to talk to a lady,” One passes by him, and puts her hoof against Connie’s horn, which makes her even in her complete daze freeze, and so do Astray and Bubbles, “Now listen to me, or I’ll turn her into a rather skinny earthpony!”
She looks around, and when no one moves, she speaks again:
“I wanted to hunt down the leader of the minotaur tribe, hear from him whether he really knew about the tunnel entrance or whether they just picked a random spot to ambush us, and force him to take his clan elswhere if they did. I can be very persuasive even though I’m not an infiltrator. You sent Bubbles after me. You aren’t used to working in the snow, that much is clear, so they were able to follow her, group up, and attack at once. I had to kill everyone. Headhunters are cannibals and merciless killers. Bubbles couldn’t handle me cleaning up, and attacked me. Now stop trying to piss me off, and I’ll get you back to Canterlot in one piece. I could go for multiple pieces too, but then I’d have to explain myself to my king whom your boss dragged off who knows where!”
“Bubbles, is that true?” Astray looks at the dishevelled demonette who lowers her head, and nods slowly.
“Yes, it is...” she mumbles, “I’m sorry...”
Astray walks over to Connie, gets down on one knee, and strokes her mane.
“Can you stand?” he asks.
“I think I can… blink...” she mutters, “My neck...”
Astray lowers himself into a kneeling sit, and puts Connie’s head in his lap to keep her neck level while she fights the urge to throw up.
“I don’t mind taking a break, but the temperature here is comfortable for us changelings more than for you,” One walks over to the drying pile of Astray’s clothes and brings it over.
“She needs rest. I’ll have to manage,” replies Astray, carefully putting his cloth shirt back on. Bubbles hops on him, curling around his neck like a living scarf.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbles again.
“Don’t worry about it, Bubbly. The important part is that we’re all in one piece and not freezing to death… as quickly.”
One smiles.
Heh, now I know exactly what your role in your team is. You’re not the commander, you’re like my boss. The part without which all the others would rip each other’s throats out in five minutes.
***
Two was brought into some kind of a board room on the ground floor of the wizard orders, with a simple round table surrounded by chairs, several blackboards, and a lectern in the front. The two marble golems are standing by the door, as the living unicorn ushered her into one of the seats, and sat down across the table from her. To her surprise, he didn’t bother putting a suppressor on her horn or anything.
“Alright, miss changeling, what are you doing here under the influence of this exceedingly intriguing piece of magic?” the unicorn chuckles, but his cold gaze doesn’t leave Two for a moment, “Although if it is indeed your doing, I’d prefer that you teach here rather than try to invade in the middle of the night.”
Two ponders trying to talk her way out of this, but in the end comes to the conclusion that she, in fact, isn’t doing anything wrong. She’s here basically on royal orders, and she’s trying to prevent bloodshed that could start a worldwide conflict.
In light of that, she crosses her forelegs on her chest, and looks the wizard straight in the eyes.
“Princess Luna sent me. The indifference spell is her doing.”
“Oh my, is that so?” the unicorn raises an eyebrow, clearly not persuaded.
“I’m investigating the cause of several attacks on delegates of the royal summit. So far, we’ve been able to prevent anything fatal from happening, but it was so so. With princess Luna’s help and that of the paladins, we think the attacker is using the magical ward matrix of the castle against us.”
“I see...”
“Look, we can do it the stupid way, and you can call the guards. They will waste time checking up on me and will just confirm my story in the end anyway. Or you can help me by answering several questions about the castle protection system and-”
“Let me stop you right there, young lady,” the unicorn frowns, “The system of castle wards is of the highest importance to the Orders, and unless you bring something extremely official with you I won’t even bother looking up which unicorns are repsonsible for the last changes or check-ups, much less the overall design. Now, I believe that you have been sent here, and the complexity as well as magical signature of your little spell certainly is more than enough for me to believe that an archmage of princess Luna’s caliber is behind it, but some of the warding predates even her betrayal and imprisonment on the moon, so it is by far not enough for me to help you. In light of that, I will not press charges, and the golems will escort you outside. Please, don’t try to get in again, or we would have to do things, as you so eloquently put it, the stupid way.”
Two sighs, and gets up from her chair. The golems open the door, and lead her out as the unicorn teleports away. Two isn’t stupid enough to try anything even without direct pony supervision, and just follows the walking statues outside.
As soon as she leaves the building, her hive link connects to panicking Eleven.
“It’s okay, Eleven, they didn’t hurt me.”
“That’s not it, Two!” Eleven’s mental voice is shaking and impatient, and shows that if the changeling was around, he would be runing from side to side like a frightened dog, “Something bad happened in the castle, I know it! Something really bad.”
Chill runs down Two’s spine. There isn’t much ‘really bad’ could mean other than the lich and Star Trail… again!
“Let’s get moving. We won’t find out anything here anyway, they saw through Luna’s spell immediately. Any clues on what’s going on?” she asks as she flies low above the streets at speed with which scattered Elevens can keep up.
“No, my bodies are too far. I’m not that useful at these distances. I just feel it.”
“Then let’s haul ass. I’m not going to go ahead and leave you alone and exposed.”
***
This late at night, warlord Darkhorn certainly wasn’t expecting to be woken up by knocking on his door. He immediately grits his teeth, expecting the worst. This summit has been eventful to say the least, and no unusual interruptions meant something good. Quickly putting on his belt with a combat dagger in addition to his breeches, he opened the door.
“Warlord, I have an urgent message from queen Chrysalis for you,” said Sunder, a member of his entourage currently on door guard.
“Chrysalis? What does she want?” Darkhorn raised an eyebrow.
“One of her changelings needs to talk to you in private.”
Darkhorn is enough of a diplomat not to twitch a muscle as the gears in his head start moving.
“What could she want from me, especially this late?”
“I don’t know, but the changeling told me to tell you to come alone,” Sunder immediately shakes his head, “I smell a rat, and I’m not letting that happen.”
Darkhorn patted his shoulder.
“You’re a good warrior, Sunder. Where am I supposed to go?”
“Top floor balcony that has two lavender hangers, one on each side.”
“Alright, let’s see what the queen of lies wants from us.”
The top floor is dark at night. Darkhorn thinks he heard some strange noises from the rafters hidden in pitch blackness, but the darkness in these halls can’t be natural, as it looks like even starlight can’t get inside.
Eventually, they find the balcony, open the glass pane door, and walk into the fresh air. The night seems much more peaceful and less oppressive outside, with the faint lights of sleeping Canterlot down in the distance.
There’s no one on the balcony, though, changeling or otherwise.
“I assumed they would be waiting here already,” comments Darkhorn, turning his back to the railing, and looking back into the castle through the door, “As far as I know, the other changelings aren’t under house arrest like their queen, not that it would stop them.”
Sunder stretches his arms, and takes a deep breath.
“Maybe they might fly by,” he leans over the ornate railing to get a better view.
Darkhorn nods, and does the same.
What he feels next is Sunder’s hand grabbing the back of his belt and pushing him over the railing into the darkness.
***
The window of Gem’s room opens in complete silence, letting in a slick, black equine completely unbothered by the deep night. The figure heads straight towards the bed with the oblivious changeling recovering from Star Trail’s attack, and after the first few steps, green fire envelops its forelegs, adding sharp blades to its hooves.
It stops above the bed, raises the blades, and is suddenly staring into Gem’s color-shifting eyes.
-FREEZE!-
Gem’s mental command only makes the changeling twitch, as if fighting the impulse to ram the hoof blades through Gem’s throat. Normally, such command would be impossible to refuse by anyone not under supreme orders of Chrysalis, her dad, or someone with mental fortitude of her mother, but against this changeling it only buys Gem wrapped in a blanket a second.
She needs more time, and she doesn’t have it.
The darkness bursts into light as flames surround the edge of a paladin sword flying from under Gem’s pillow and hacking the changeling’s forelegs off in one swing.
Bright Star, sitting on a chair by Gem’s door hidden by a spell similar to the one Luna cast on Two, only obviously a much lesser version, walks over to the bed.
“I can’t get into her head,” says Gem in disbelief, freeing herself from the blanket burrito.
“What does it mean?” asks Bright Star, knowing Gem enough to be sure that anything she says in a situation like this has reason and is not just innane chatter.
“She’s a low tier changeling,” Gem walks over to the foreleg-less changeling on the floor, stumps cauterized by the flame of Bright Star’s sword, “By all means I should be able to connect to her and control her completely, but I can’t.”
“One of Chrysalis’s then?”
“Yes, but that doesn’t matter. It’s not as if she was under more powerful orders or suggestions, her mind is just… all wrong,” Gem pushes the changeling’s chest gently against the floor, and grabs her cheeks to make her look Gem in the eyes.
“Diiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeee!” the changeling screeches like a feral hyena, and snaps her jaws at Gem’s forelegs.
“Aaah?!” Gem jumps backwards on reflex, and stumbles into a wardrobe door as the drooling and snarling changeling pushes herself with her hind legs straight towards her.
Bright Star’s sword hacks her head off, finally extinguishing the light in those teal and completely insane eyes.
“I...” Gem finds herself breathing heavily and trembling, “I’ve never met a changeling I couldn’t at least connect to… or find a hive link… but this...”
“We need to pay the good old queen a little visit, it seems,” Bright Star scowls, the sword circling around him, “Stay behind me, Gem. I’ll be damned if I bring you back to your dad in less than mint condition.”
“Heh heheh...” Gem chuckles nervously, “If you weren’t married, Bright Star, the things I would do to you would be illegal in most of the civilized world.”
***
Cryo is sitting in the Royal Guard workshop on the castle grounds next to a green cocoon containing Rutherford grinning from ear to ear, basking in his love and lust saturating the goo.
The door opens, and a heavily armored yak guard enters holding a lamp. He… or she walks over to Cryo who can’t exactly figure out yak gender without a direct look, salutes, and looks at Rutherford’s gooey prison.
“I have a message for prince Ruth-”
With one stomp of both of her forelegs, Cryo crushes the yak into paste.
“What were you?” she asks the empty room.
What must have happened to the guards outside to let this… thing inside is irrelevant. Cryo is in here, and with her the cocoon is safe. Boss beard wants her to be diplomatic, and leaving beard loaf alone would be dangerous. With her, nothing can threaten the diplomacy between boss beard and beard loaf.
On the other hole, it doesn’t hurt to ask. She connects to invisible Eleven watching the situation in horror from the corner table.
“Hey, weird beard, what’s going on?”
“Everything is wrong!”
“Geez, you think?” Cryo rolls her eyes, “Stay here and keep me informed in case you see something elsewhere. I’ll need all my crappy senses to keep this place safe. Don’t worry, big blue momma will protect you.”
***
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” Eleven cries out as the separate experiences of his bodies merge into one.
Two, buzzing through the streets, overrides the physical control of the herd of Elevens behind her, sorting them by distance and strength of hive link presence, and makes the bodies keep running like puppets as she feels Eleven’s actual control crumble completely,
“Eleven?” she asks when she has firm control over his bodies.
“Run straight to the dungeons,” is all Eleven’s weak and confused hive link can transfer.
Two enters the castle grounds, and while there doesn’t seem to be any increase in the amount of guards around, a lot of the castle windows are lit up, namely on the second floor where the guest rooms are. That can’t be a good thing.
“Cryo, Gem? What the hole is going on?”
“I crushed a weird changeling disguised as beard loaf,” responds Cryo, “I don’t know what to do, so I’m keeping my tiny beard and head beard loaf safe. Gemstone beard agreed.”
“Two, I’m glad you’re okay,” Gem replies a moment later, “Chrysalis’ changelings tried to assassinate all the summit leaders barring the princesses. Chrysalis has been imprisoned in the dungeons, and everyone is mega pissed.”
“I’ll be right there!”
Gem allows Two to look through her eyes, and what Two sees makes her bite her lip.
All summit rulers with the exception of Rutherford are standing in a circular room, with Celestia towering over Chrysalis chained to a pillar in the center of the cell and wearing a complex magic suppressor twining all over her long, gnarled horn.
“Look, if you think about it, I am the victim here!” barks Chrysalis.
“SHUT UP!” dragon lord Ember growls at the slumped queen, raising her arm.
“Please, don’t,” Gem limps forward, her voice exhausted and cracks all over her chitin from her previous beating by Star Trail clearly visible.
“Oh great… changelings again,” Ivan Ivanov snorts in contempt, earning Bright Star’s furious glare, followed by the paladin marching towards him, raising his hoof against the stunned and with each step more and more terrified unicorn.
“No violence,” Gem breathes out simply, “Peace is our only way out of this, if any of you are willing to listen.”
“Oh my oh my...” Two hears a voice inside her head after feeling a mental touch she can’t resist at all sorting through her memories of recent days within a second, “Two, report to Luna with what you found, and return to the wizard orders with Anvil. I’m hearing she made quite the impression last time she was there.”
“W- what?” Two can’t resist the smile creeping on her face as she stops in the middle of a hallway, and slowly turns around.
“Did I stutter?”
“N- no,” Two’s eyes tear up, and she starts running up the castle staircases.
“Good, honey.”
“Her changelings just tried to kill EVERYONE and you’re going to defend her?” one of the zebra delegates, Zarach if Gem recalls correctly, bares his teeth at Gem.
“Including me,” Gem breathes out, ears splayed back.
“Oh suuuure, as if we could believe that-”
His objection is interrupted by the door of the sealing cell slamming open, and letting in a white figure taller than most of them.
“Making an ass of yourself again, Zarach? You’re as shit at diplomacy as you are at seducing changelings,” Cromach unceremoniously drops Twilight on the floor in front of everyone, earning a round of gasps and Celestia rushing towards him, “And you, Sunny Buns, should be thanking king totally-and-definitely-beard for getting us to her in time, otherwise I’d still be fiddling with some dumbass cogs in Magnus’ tower.”
“I’d love to say I’m glad to be back, but seeing all of you snarling at my daughter would make that a lie,” I follow Cromach inside, and Three riding on my back waves at everyone with both forelegs, “And I’m really tired of your bullshit, so everyone will shut up now and listen to Cromach, or they get a chair in the face.”
“Ooof, immediately with the big guns,” Cromach snickers, “Aaanyway, Sunny, I’m actually tired of your lazy ass too, so unless you want to explain to everyone here why you’re keeping them in the danger zone by not doing anything about castle wards, AND complete dissolution of any cooperation with the Silver Sun, you’re going to strip the castle magical wards immediately and start rebuilding them from scratch. Anvil and one of boss’ underlings -see what I did there?- are already talking to Luna, and will be heading to the United Orders immediately to get those lazy asses here with their beds if necessary.”
“Look, this-” Celestia’s eyes dart from Cromach to Twilight, and her mouth open to protest or threaten closes when faced with the glares of the other rulers.
“Don’t fuck with me, Celestia!” Cromach hisses at her, green lightning arcing through his foreleg into the floor, “You cost me everything, and I’m still here trying to help for some Hope-damned reason!”
I clear my throat, which for some strange reason works for shutting everyone up.
“Your Highness, it will all make sense when we tell you what Magnus explained to us, but as Cromach said, the castle wards are what is making the attacks happen,” I look down as Twilight groans, “Oh, and you should sort this out too. We saved her from Arcane Hex’s attack.”
“Arcane Hex?” Celestia blinks.
I growl as I finally unconsciously sort through everyone’s memories, and come to the part where One disappeared.
I sigh.
“Your Highness, before I do something really stupid because the love of my life jumped into some unstable hole in reality while protecting you, let’s disable the magic wards. That, or I and all my changelings leave immediately, because this place isn’t safe. When the next attack inevitably happens, I won’t be there to stop it.”
“And neither will my team, what’s left of it,” adds Cromach.
“The same goes for the delegation from Rift,” Darkhorn scowls at Celestia, “I owe my life to the Nightguards who caught me falling from the top floor, and disabled the changeling impersonating my friend, but those serve your sister, not you.”
Neat. That should keep her focused on the problem at hoof.
***
After calling the Royal Guards to take Twilight away, and sending Bright Star in the official capacity of paladins to join Anvil and Two on the way back to the wizards, the other rulers eventually left Cromach, Celestia, Gem, and myself alone with Chrysalis. They grumbled about it a lot, but Celestia eventually persuaded them by saying that mental magic was involved and they didn’t know anything about it.
She said it much more diplomatically, of course.
“You know, there used to be a time when I would pay good money to be in this position, if I had any,” I smirk at Chrysalis who gives me an unimpressed look.
“Good, you can jack off to this image later,” she retorts, “Now can you please do that thing you goody two-horseshoes do and explain to our royal company that I have nothing to do with what happened just like last time?”
The thick cell door opens, letting in Luna, one Nightguard carrying a dead changeling, and Eleven riding on Luna’s back.
“I told Eleven to have someone bring one of tonight’s attackers here for examination,” explains Gem, “And, if you don’t mind me repeating this, I doubt Chrysalis had anything to do with the attack.”
“Do you have any proof? Anything I could present to the rulers to calm them down?” asks Celestia.
“Nothing they would understand,” Gem shakes her head.
“What she’s trying to say is that none of those morons can directly see into the heads of others like we can,” Chrysalis nods towards the body as much as the chains around her neck allow her, “Look, I did a thorough examination of my changeling who attacked Vargaz, and I can feel the same thing from this one. I can share my experiences with boss and Gem here if you take this damn thing off of my horn.”
To the surprise of everyone, Luna immediately does so, looks at everyone, and shrugs.
“There are two alicorns here, one divine-touched griffon, and a second changeling king. I have some respect for Chrysalis, but if she tries something in this company she’s eating a can of Raid faster than she can say bzzz.”
“Rude...” Chrysalis pouts, her memories of performing the examination of one of her best, “True, but still rude.”
“Just as I thought,” Gem nods, “It’s exactly the same, or slightly more polished this time. These weren’t changeling minds. They were transformed by some… magic, I assume. Their mental links have been forced closed and left with only the order to kill. Strangely enough, you two haven’t been targeted,” Gem looks at the royal sisters.
“Now there’s something you should be thanking me for not sharing previously, hmmm?” Chrysalis sticks her tongue out at Celestia.
“Gem, do you mind letting me take a peek inside your head?” Luna walks over to her.
“Ummmm...”
“I’ll help you kick Luna out if she gets a bit too intrusive, honey,” I reassure Gem.
“Alright,” she agrees in the end.
“Simply focus on your knowledge about the attackers,” Luna instructs her, and closes her eyes.
I feel a surge of subtle yet powerful magic scan the forefront of Gem’s thoughts, and quickly withdraw.
“It wasn’t magic,” says Luna, “It was the stolen divinity. Magic capable of completely rebuilding the brain leaves unmistakable marks and requires physical intevrention. I think that our lich is behind it. Why? I assume to cause some international chaos, or specifically global hatred for changelings. What Gem here identified as ‘more polished’ changes in the minds of tonight’s attackers to me is the proof of the lich getting used to the stolen divine power.”
“Which smoothly brings us to the lich being Arcane Hex and working with Star Trail to resurrect himself and gain the kind of immortality you alicorns have.”
“Should I know the name?” asks Luna, “Arcane Hex, not Star Trail. I’m familiar with king Beard’s exploits.”
“Not particularly,” Celestia shakes her head, “He used to be one of the best magicians in the United Orders, and he taught advanced courses in the School for Gifted Unicorns. Last year, he orchestrated a theft of two life giving rings I meant as a wedding gift for two Silver Sun members who saved us from the Vigil cult. Cromach and his team fought him in the old mines and collapsed part of the main shaft during the battle. Everyone presumed Arcane Hex died in the cave-in.”
“So you didn’t bother having the top wizards rebuild the castle ward system because you assumed that the head traitor who was behind most of the recent big changes to it, especially after Chrysalis’ invasion, could use them against you. Well, that time is over,” Cromach finishes the thought, “I get the amount of required resources, but it’s either that or pretty much a world war.”
To my surprise, the reply comes from Luna.
“With all due respect, you don’t get it, Cromach. Rebuilding the protections in full will take lifetimes of work of the top unicorns of our age. However, I agree with the necessity at this point. We don’t know who else might know enough about the system to abuse it.”
“The wizards should have the runes deactivated by the morning,” Celestia sighs, “However, I doubt that in itself will soothe the worries of the rulers, especially if they figure out that without the protections we’re all vulnerable to things potentially much worse than an undead mage, albeit a powerful one.”
Cromach smirks, and nudges me.
“Eeeeeh, I think the two of us together have enough street cred to help with that.”
“If I knew what that meant, I would agree,” I smirk, realizing to my own surprise that I mean it. When Cromach gets all positive, it’s infectious.